NRI's not eligible for OCI certificate: Minister

Non-Resident Indians are not eligible for grant of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) registration as they are Indian Citizens, the Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal informed the Rajya Sabha today.

In a written reply, he said the category of persons who are eligible for OCI registration as provided in Section 7A of Citizenship Act, 1955 are the ones who are citizens of another country, but were the citizens of India at the time of, or at any time after the commencement of the Constitution.

The scheme has been made operational with effect from December 2, 2005, he said. In reply to another question, Jaiswal said there are 363 Pakistani nationals of Indian origin staying on long term visa in Kerala.

He said a total of 2,272 Pakistani nationals residing in different parts of India have been granted Indian citizenship during the last three years. However, Jaiswal said this figure does not include the number of Indian Citizenships granted to Pakistani nationals by the state of Rajasthan and Gujarat under the powers delegated to them. Source: Punjabnewsline